“Who’s this?”
“Hey, Daddy. This is um . . .” Nahla paused and inhaled. Releasing Nahla’s hand, Cannon extended his toward Nahla’s father.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Avery. I’m Cannon Porter, Nahla’s boyfriend.”
Cannon saw the surprise in Jackson Avery’s eyes as he met his hand with a surprisingly firm shake.
“Boyfriend, huh?” he asked, focusing on his daughter.
She nodded. “Yes, sir. Cannon is going to take us to today’s appointment, because my car is at the shop for maintenance.”
Her dad chuckled and said, “All right, let’s get on this road.” With that, he passed Nahla and Cannon and headed toward the front door.
Nahla turned to do the same, but Cannon stopped her by grasping her hand again.
“You good?” he asked, searching her face for the answer before she had time to lie.
“I’m fine. Let’s go,” she said softly. Her eyes were sad, and it pissed him off, probably more than it should’ve. Every girl deserved a dad who didn’t play about them. Before his parents died in a car accident, that was what Capri had in their father, and if Cannon ever settled down and had kids, he would be the same way. Nahla said that her father wouldn’t make a big deal about her having a boyfriend, but it really didn’t sit right with Cannon that her fatheractuallydidn’t give a damn about who his daughter was dating. How messed up was that?
Once they all made it in the car, Cannon wasted no time pulling off. Their drive to Lyle was mostly quiet. Nahla tried to engage her father in conversation, but he gave short answers and contributed little. After a while, she gave up, and again, Cannon was surprised by just how much the sadness in her expression pissed him off.
He was so drawn to Nahla, it was ridiculous. He wanted to do nothing more than admire the woman sitting beside him, and every time he stole a glance at her, his heart started doing weird shit.
She really wasn’t even doing anything, just looking out the window and sipping the coffee she insisted they buy before they picked up her dad. She was just riding and vibing, but Cannon had never been more aware of another being in his life. Every time she didanything—crossed her legs, applied lip gloss, or checked her phone—he felt it. He didn’t like that he felt it, because Nahla was his job,nothis woman. In all the years that he had been doing this, Nahla was the first woman who made him have to keep reminding himself of that.
“You okay?”
Damn.Even her voice was getting to him. He didn’t know what the hell to do about it either.
“Yeah, I’m straight. Why you ask?”
He glanced at Nahla as she pulled down her visor and leaned forward. He could tell that she was trying to see her father, so he looked through the rearview mirror at him too.
About halfway through the ride, he had put in his earphones. Whatever he was listening to was loud as hell, because they could hear it faintly.
Once she put her mirror back up, she looked at Cannon again. “Your face is tight. You’re squeezing the hell out of the steering wheel.”
Cannon paused then laughed. He wasn’t the only observant person in the car.
“I’m just thinkin’ ’bout shit. That’s all.”
“About Lyle?”
He glanced at Mr. Avery again.
“About keepin’ you safe in Lyle.”
She flashed that smile his way again, and he had to look away. “I’m grateful to have you with me. I know having a whole other passenger probably adds more stress on you, so thank you for being so accommodating.”
Instead of responding, he zeroed in on the road ahead of them. He was slowly butsurelyrealizing that it was quite literally everything about Nahla that had him feeling a way. The way she smelled, the way she looked, the way she sounded. Even the way she had just smiled at him was too much—too warm, too perfect, too damn inviting.
This woman had him tripping in a matter of days; he was low-key scared about how more time spent would affect him.
Cannon would be lying if he said he didn’t feel a shift the moment he stepped out of the car. Lyle was tiny, so they stuck out in the doctor’s office parking lot like sore thumbs. Most of the Black people in that city were older because millennials and younger people mostly moved away from Lyle at the first chance they got.
Because the parking lot was extremely full, they had to park along the road, and as he scanned the area, he couldn’t help but notice cars slowing beside them. This shit had him annoyed already.
He generally hated it when his clients had to attend high-risk events or areas, but it wasn’t new to him. The only thingnewin this situation was his feelings for his client, and he was still trying to decide if they made things better or worse for the job he had to do.
